Shame on coup

June 22, 2014 1:00 am

The Thais are certainly upset by US, Australian and EU criticism of the coup. However, back in March, we had the US supporting movements against elected governments in the Ukraine, Egypt and Venezuela.

US Secretary of State John Kerry told AFP at the time: "A democracy is not defined solely by an election. You can have a democratically elected government, but you don't have democratically instituted reforms that actually give you a democracy."

He did not mention Thailand at the time so maybe now he thinks that our democratically elected government was, indeed, up to his standards and did not warrant a coup.

In any event, military juntas do not command respect. Thais react to shame and shame is what it is.